Your impairment is usually considered a disability under the Equality Act if it makes it harder for you to do everyday activities. Everyday activities can be anything you generally need to do regularly to live well, for example washing, communicating or using transport. The Equality Act’s definition of disability is quite wide so you might be considered disabled under the Equality Act even if you don’t see yourself as disabled - for example if you’re autistic or if you have ADHD or a long-term injury. Impairment is an absence of or significant difference in a person’s body structure or function or mental functioning. 2 For example, problems in the structure of the brain can result in difficulty with mental functions, or problems with the structure of the eyes or ears can result in difficulty with the functions of vision or hearing. Am I the only one who jumped up in the air as a kid and then, like, never came down? Like, I was floating and just had my legs swinging.” I wait for a response from my college classmates. I have a Budweiser can in my right hand, hovering over my two previous ones. We’ve agreed to wash out my grief with alcohol on the last night of our final spring quarter together. A6. It may not always be possible, nor is it necessary, to categorise a condition as either a physical or a mental impairment. The underlying cause of the impairment may be hard to establish. There may be adverse effects which are both physical and mental in nature. Furthermore, effects of a mainly physical nature may stem from an underlying mental impairment, and vice versa.

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Even in a non-work situation he finds any general exertion difficult. This has some adverse effect on his ability to carry out a normal dayto-day activity like changing a bed. D1. The Act looks at a person’s impairment and whether it substantially and adversely affects the person’s ability to carry out normal day-to- day activities. Meaning of ‘normal day-to-day activities’ B10. In some cases, people have coping or avoidance strategies which cease to work in certain circumstances (for example, where someone who has dyslexia is placed under stress). If it is possible that a person’s ability to manage the effects of an impairment will break down so that effects will sometimes still occur, this possibility must be taken into account when assessing the effects of the impairment.Associated with a longstanding condition (for example, diabetes), which can cause a disability such as vision loss, nerve damage, or limb loss. C1. The Act states that, for the purpose of deciding whether a person is disabled, a long-term effect of an impairment is one: A person experiences, over a long period, adverse effects arising from two separate and unrelated conditions, for example a lung infection and a leg injury. These effects should not be aggregated. Meaning of ‘likely’ A man has an operation to remove the colon because of progressing and uncontrollable ulcerative colitis. The operation results in his no longer experiencing adverse effects from the colitis. He requires a colostomy, however, which means that his bowel actions can only be controlled by a sanitary appliance. This requirement for an appliance substantially affects his ability to undertake a normal day-to-day activity and should be taken into account as an adverse effect arising from the original impairment. Related to conditions that are present at birth and may affect functions later in life, including cognition (memory, learning, and understanding), mobility (moving around in the environment), vision, hearing, behavior, and other areas. These conditions may be

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inability to hold a conversation in a very noisy place, such as a factory floor, a pop concert, sporting event or alongside a busy main road Throughout the guidance, descriptions of statutory provisions in the legislation are immediately preceded by bold text and followed by a reference to the relevant provision of the Act or to regulations made under the Act. References to sections of the Act are marked ‘S’; references to schedules are marked ‘Sch’; and references to paragraphs in schedules are marked ‘Para’. Other references to ‘disability’ A person has Menières Disease. This results in his experiencing mild tinnitus at times, which does not adversely affect his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. However, it also causes temporary periods of significant hearing loss every few months. The hearing loss substantially and adversely affects his ability to conduct conversations or listen to the radio or television. Although his condition does not continually have this adverse effect, it satisfies the long-term requirement because it has substantial adverse effects that are likely to recur beyond 12 months after he developed the impairment. The young man is not entitled to the protection of the Act in relation to any discrimination he experiences as a consequence of his exhibitionism, because that is an excluded condition under the Act. addiction to, or dependency on, alcohol, nicotine, or any other substance (other than in consequence of the substance being medically prescribed)the long-term substantial adverse effects must be effects on normal day-to-day activities ( see Section D)